Bone Augmentation (Grafting)
Bone to tooth or an implant is what a good foundation is to a building. The better the quality and quantity of bone, the stronger the connections to implant or tooth, the sturdier the tooth or implant and better the functioning of the tooth or implant. Inadequate bone leads to mobility of the tooth or implant.
Bone augmentation is a procedure when sterile bone substitute (natural bone mineral graft) orautologous bone (bone from the patient’s own body) is placed in the surgery site. Autologous bone can be obtained from the ramus of the mandible (lower jaw bone) or the chin (mental region) of the patient.
After 4-5 months, the grafted bone substitute gets integrated into the surrounding bone, thus giving support to the tooth or implant.
If the patient has less bone for a tooth (as it is often see in periodontal disease) or the placement of implant, then additional bone substitute may be required. Without bone augmentation, the tooth will be mobile or the implant will not stay and the whole exercise will be futile.
We often mix the bone substitute or graft with Plasma Rich in Growth Factors (PRGF) to hasten healing
To read more about PRGF, please read our Services section PRGF
Various applications of bone augmentation or bone grafting are:
– Adjunct to implant surgeries
– Periodontal flap surgeries
– Surgical extractions – placement of bone in alveolar socket
– After impaction surgeries to fill the space left by the impacted tooth
– Bone augmentation of the entire upper (maxillary) or lower (mandibular) arch to provide base for a good stable prosthesis – complete denture or overlay denture
– Enucleation (excision) of dental cyst to correct the bone defect
